Magic the Gathering removes "racist" cards from its library

[Rational Poster]

Indeed, it has been, that's precisely what destroys the arguments this gesture was required to improve business. I wonder where you got the idea this success (which has been true for years) has anything to do with "trying to sell the game to everyone now." It sounds like you're accusing them of not trying to sell it to everyone before. That makes no sense, and I'd be interested to see the evidence they marketed to racists, previously. Magic has had an international presence for over two decades. Germans were winning the world championships in the 90's, for example.

Furthermore, where are you drawing your data that this supposedly greater non-dorky white guy appeal is contributing to their success? Here's a picture from Magic's largest annual tournament in the world last year in Las Vegas:

Dorky white guys will of course continue to be their primary market, for sure. Not disputing that but as someone who actually is involved in the online Magic community I can assure you Magic is trying their hardest to expand that market, especially in recent years despite the constant crying from the dorky white guys. Paper Magic players are basically a separate community at this point now that Magic Arena is so popular.

 

[Madmick]

Dorky white guys will of course continue to be their primary market, for sure. Not disputing that but as someone who actually is involved in the online Magic community I can assure you Magic is trying their hardest to expand that market, especially in recent years despite the constant crying from the dorky white guys. Paper Magic players are basically a separate community at this point now that Magic Arena is so popular.

Another concession.

Accepted.

 

[aunshi189]

I think you'd be surprised.

There was an awkward incident in the last few days where WOTC looked to celebrate black members of the game/community. They stopped at about 4 and it ended up feeling very weak and just tokenism.

There are definitely a diverse range of mtg players, though it is heavily white male. A large amount of trans players too.

 

[shockaholic12]

I have yet to see any pro-business justification beyond empty rhetoric. You already prejudicially assumed this was needed to improve business out of your ignorance. As has been pointed out to you...business has been great with those cards in the library.

The extremely simple and pretty much costless step of discontinuing old cards has Magic the Gathering getting a bunch of positive press today. Getting this many people to speak on your product usually could cost quite a bit, but this is mostly free press and that's the best kind. Marketing is all rhetoric. If you can't see what Magic is doing here you're not the savviest marketing mind.

 

[Fawlty]

There was an awkward incident in the last few days where WOTC looked to celebrate black members of the game/community. They stopped at about 4 and it ended up feeling very weak and just tokenism.

There are definitely a diverse range of mtg players, though it is heavily white male. A large amount of trans players too.

More heavily white male toward the top (and Wizards has a bit of a reputation that might explain the business and R&D side of that). I've seen more diversity in my local MtG stints than in the general population, though I'm just one person.

 

[Rational Poster]

Another concession.

Accepted.

I'm still here not conceding anything while you keep splitting split hairs thinking you're actually arguing something.

 

[Starman]

I’m not the one crying here, starcan. Lmao

I'm not the one lying here, absolver. Lmao

 

[Squarechoke]

I'm aware of his ignominious personal politics. He has caused grief in the Magic community in the past. You seem confused what a "literal Nazi" is. They're almost all dead. Call him a Neo-Nazi or a white supremacist, that's fine. He's irrelevant.

Because again, if he is the issue, then they should target his illustrations, and recruit other illustrators to replace the illustration for those cards. The illustrators don't create the cards or playtest them. Meanwhile, if we set this benchmark, then every illustrator who has ever shared something on social media that is politically detestable should also be canceled. Communists. Palestinian terrorist sympathizers. Anti-American radicals. Not sure where we draw the line.

The content is the focus, and this is absurd. It makes no sense. It will do no more to eradicate racism than removing necromancy cards from the game would to eradicate zombies.

Common English dictionaries don't define Nazi solely as a member of the actual National Socialistic German Workers' Party. Among the definitions there is one about people that adhere to that ideology, which means there are indeed literal definitions that fit what he's saying. Not that the semantic part matters much to the point you two were discussing.

 

[Starman]

It's a symptom of you needing to find something on the internet to bitch about and a handful of silly cards being the best you could come up with.

"this is SO EVIL guys!!!!" lol

It's a symptom of book-burning leftists. Your posts are the symptoms of a simp.

 

[Rational Poster]

This is why we can’t have nice things. Just imagine if all those kids were interested in science instead.

Honestly think you're dead wrong here.

Magic is one of the most complicated and thoughtful games in existence. We need more kids playing Magic, not less.

 

[Jack Stevonovich]

I have yet to see any pro-business justification beyond empty rhetoric. You already prejudicially assumed this was needed to improve business out of your ignorance. As has been pointed out to you...business has been great with those cards in the library.

My first post was me being facetious. My position is not to justify it but to point out that what is happening is the same thing that happened after that Al Gore Documentary came out in the 2000's when every company began green washing campaigns to cater to their public image. The same thing is happening now in a 'race washing' campaign. Except it's happening on a deeper level because white grievance is now a mainstream fetish.

Just because I'm pointing out that something is racist doesn't mean I'm trying to censor or cancel it. I'm just pointing it out. White grievance is just the white liberals form of racism still intact in their psyche so they look for it outside themselves to cancel or prove they aren't racists but some other white people over there are. It becomes a game that caters to white liberals weird ass fetish where if they can get black people to play the game too then for sure they aren't racists.

 

[Milan]

Remember this guy that got banned?

Action Bronson ?

 

[MilesAbove]

It is mainly conservatives who play MTG because you need the ability to read and think in order to play the game.

Ouch, that was a rough attempt at humor. Better luck next time.

 

[Damien Karras]

Most of what Dems have done for the past 25 years is what is going to get Trump re-elected. I mean, it's what got him elected in the first place.

yeah but this one takes the cake, you have to admit

this is almost as bad as the time Obama wore a brown suit, put his feet up on his desk in the oval office, and dared to put dijon mustard on his hot dog

 

[shockaholic12]

That's not banning knealing, dumbass, it's telling players not to turn their job of playing with a ball for money into a political protest against the country of all the fans that are buying tickets. The same way you can't go to your job at burger king and tell Mexican customers what a shithole Mexico is and expect to still work there. You can spend all of your own time on your knees, which I'm sure you already do, and a team can tell their players to stand during the national anthem like everybody else in the stadium who actually paid to be there and are the ones responsible for all of the team's revenue.

I myself don't care and don't watch football no matter what they do, so is it possible for you to speak as your own person or are you such a simpleton that everything must be an argument on behalf of your political party? Why would you feel the need to demand censorship of things you already said you don't play, read, watch or listen to?

It's banning kneeling. They didn't bring it up until the kneeling started. It was direct response to kneeling. Trump specifically calls for people kneeling to be fired.

Wow, so now the players are at fault for not staying out of politics during the game? You are talking about a league the in the last decade has accepted tens of millions of dollars from the pentagon for acts of "paid patriotism". “Until 2009, no NFL player stood for the national anthem because players actually stayed in the locker room as the anthem played,” ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith explained in 2016. “The players were moved to the field during the national anthem because it was seen as a marketing strategy to make the athletes look more patriotic. The United States Department of Defense paid the National Football League $5.4 million between 2011 and 2014, and the National Guard $6.7 million between 2013 and 2015 to stage onfield patriotic ceremonies as part of military-recruitment budget line items.”

So the league could pull ALL this shit, but kneeling during the anthem is suddenly too much politics in football and must be stopped? Derp.

I'm not demanding censorship. Please point to where folks demanded this of Magic and it wasn't their own choice? A business discontinuing old cards it thinks aren't helping it's branding going forward is not censorship.

 

[mortal]

If a company does something that they then what to change due to evolving cultural mores are they allowed to do that without being criticized?

Isn't that exactly what is supposed to happen?

The cultural mores are not "evolving", they're forcibly (and yet methodically) changing by the few in power (and with power comes influence, among other things). Those who refuse to go along are changed by harassement or even by the threat of unemployment.

This is nothing new though, both sides of the coin are guilty of this.

 

[nac386]

This whole thread is hilarious to me. These nerds have a card that actually summons prejudice during their games? Lol.

It's actually a very realistic card. Probably the most realistic, considering it's trolls and whatnot. That woman in Central Park actually pulled the real life version of this card just the other day when a black man told her to leash her dog.

 

[shockaholic12]

It's a symptom of book-burning leftists. Your posts are the symptoms of a simp.

A business discontinuing old products in the name of marketing is book burning?

Are you always this hysterical?

 

[Rational Poster]

This whole thread is hilarious to me. These nerds actual summon racism during their games? Lol.

That woman in Central Park actually pulled the real life version of this card.

Nah, the cards in question haven't been legal in any of the popular formats for decades.

It's just a PR move from Wizards, that's all.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

This whole thread is hilarious to me. These nerds have a card that actually summons prejudice during their games? Lol.

That woman in Central Park actually pulled the real life version of this card.

Yea and the black dude pulled the cell phone video counter card.

We know how that ended up